The Stingiest Man in Star City
by Daniel Fielder
Summary: On Christmas Eve, Malcolm Merlyn, a stingy Metropolitan, is visited by spirits to convince him to change his ways before it's too late.
1. Malcolm Merlyn

Smallville with Rankin Bass. Merry Christmas! … In June…

Disclaimer: Smallville, Arrow, Flash, and any other DC characters I use in this belong to Warner Brothers, DC Comics, and their respective creators while the Stingiest Man in Town belongs to Rankin-Bass. I own nothing.

* * *

 **The Stingiest Man in Star City**

Prologue: Malcolm Merlyn

 _Holly-ho!_

 _Holly ho-ho-ho!_

 _Holly ho! Tally ho!_

 _Sing a Christmas Carol written long ago._

Chloe Sullivan was hanging out in the Luthor Mansion when we walked up.

" _Written long ago._ " Chloe repeated when she noticed us. "The merriest of Merry Christmases to you."

"Who are you?" I asked?

"Who am I?" Chloe exclaimed. "Chloe Sullivan. Welcome to the home of the kindest and most generous man in Star City, Malcolm Merlyn." Chloe continued.

"What?" My friend Rob asked in shock.

"You're surprised I call Merlyn kind and generous." Chloe observed. "Well, you can take my word for it. True, Mr. Merlyn wasn't always so jolly. There was a time when he was as mean and miserable as the counting house in which he conducted his business. The offices of Merlyn and Strange. Now Hugo Strange was dead to begin with, but old Merlyn never paid to have Strange's name crossed out.

 _There was a mean and stingy man_

 _Named Malcolm Merlyn._

 _His heart was hard and cold_

 _Because he was the devil's kin._

 _While he set down to count the gold_

 _That is mind could never leave._

 _Young people in the square outside…_

"Merry Christmas!" Several children called out, disrupting Merlyn's train of thought.

 _Celebrated Christmas Eve._

"Away!" Merlyn shouted, brandishing an umbrella. "Away with you and your 'Merry Christmas'!"

The children scattered upon seeing Merlyn.

"Christmas." Merlyn scoffed as he sat back down. "Bah humbug. Humbug!"

"That used to be his favorite word." Chloe explained to us. "My mom was the housekeeper for Merlyn before she passed on, so he had me stay and do my mother's old work load. Oh, Merlyn was a tight-fisted man. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, covetous old sinner. Until that Christmas Eve, not too long ago, when the ghosts came. My new friends, allow me to tell you a Ghost Story for Christmas. _**The Stingiest Man in Star City**_."

* * *

And you'll hear it too, in a few days, hopefully. So keep an eye out.


	2. Merry Christmas Uncle Malcolm

Chapter 1: Merry Christmas Uncle Malcolm

It was Christmas Eve, about two years back, and the people in the streets of Metropolis were singing.

 _An old fashioned Christmas,_

 _With snow falling hard._

 _On scenery looking like,_

 _A pretty Christmas Card._

Inside, Chloe, the personal aid of Malcolm Merlyn, was talking with Merlyn's clerk, Clark Kent, while the music was going on.

 _An old fashioned angel,_

 _On top of a tree._

 _And candlelight shining down,_

 _On friends surrounding me._

Chloe did a little dance as Clark smiled when Merlyn burst in. Clark was a tall lean man with glasses over his blue eyes with black hair.

"Kent!" Merlyn called out as the blonde aid stopped, and Clark stood at attention. "A pretty way to be wasting my time. 'An old fashioned Christmas.' You'll be an old fashioned pauper if you don't attend to your work."

"You wouldn't discharge me, sir." Clark said nervously. "Not on Christmas Eve."

"Oh, wouldn't I?" Merlyn asked when a lump of coal fell out of Clark's jacket pocket. "What's this? Stealing my coal, are we?"

"For the stove, sir." Clark said meekly. "It's so damp and chilly in here."

Clark had to sneak the coal in lump by lump when Merlyn's back was turned; luckily, he was never severely punished for it, especially since the office was actually a little refreshing in the summers.

"Next thing, you'll be picking my pockets." Merlyn said with a sneer.

"Oh look, sir." Clark said as he saw a figure in a white shirt and green jacket pass the window. "Your nephew Oliver is coming to pay you a visit."

"What's that fool want?" Merlyn asked just as Oliver popped in.

"I like him, sir." Clark said. "His smile warms my heart."

Oliver was a young man with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes like his mother.

" _Merry Christmas, Uncle Malcolm!_ " Oliver called out.

" _Humbug!_ " Merlyn called back dismissively.

" _Oh, be merry, Uncle Malcolm._ " Oliver persisted.

"Ha-ha-ha." Merlyn said in a lackluster way.

 _What's so merry on Christmas Day?_

 _The merry money you throw away?_

 _The merry bills you have to pay?_

 _When you say 'Merry Christmas',_

 _I say bah!_

Clark shrugged at Chloe, neither of them really knew why Merlyn was so cold and unfeeling.

" _Here's a present, Uncle Malcolm._ " Oliver said as he handed a box to Lex.

" _Humbug!_ " Merlyn called out as he opened the present to reveal, as he suspected, a tie.

 _I think you are a fool to waste your cash._

 _What's the present you always buy?_

 _A handkerchief or an awful tie._

 _Look at this tie, and you'll know why,_

 _When I get Christmas presents,_

 _I say trash!_

Merlyn tossed the tie away as it ended up wrapped around Clark's neck.

"It's you." Chloe said encouragingly.

" _But everything at Christmas is so jolly and lively._ " Oliver continued. " _The Christmas trees and wreaths of holly._ "

" _Poison ivy._ " Merlyn scoffed.

" _The_ _girls and boys who dream about St. Nicholas._ " Oliver went on.

" _St. Nicholas?_ " Merlyn asked. " _Ridiculous._ "

" _Don't you like him, Uncle Malcolm?_ " Oliver asked.

" _Humbug!_ " Merlyn called out.

' _Good old, Nicholas.'_

 _That's a lot of slosh!_

 _I abominate old St. Nick._

 _His reckless spending makes me sick._

 _I think St. Nick's a lunatic._

 _When you say 'Old St. Nicholas',_

 _I say bosh!_

"Oh, don't be so cross, Uncle." Oliver insisted. "Come, dine with us tomorrow."

"Christmas dinner?" Merlyn scoffed. "What a revolting, repugnant institution."

" _Oh don't you like a juicy Christmas turkey?_ " Oliver asked.

" _Detest it._ " Merlyn argued.

" _Plum pudding with a brandy sauce?_ " Oliver went on.

" _Can't_ _digest it._ " Merlyn said airily.

" _You'll get a mellow feeling for humanity._ " Oliver went on.

"' _Humanity?' Insanity!_ " Merlyn called out again.

At this, Clark had to hold Chloe back at Merlyn's pure ire for life.

" _You'll enjoy it, Uncle Malcolm._ " Oliver assured him.

" _Humbug!_ " Merlyn said once more.

 _It may be fun for you, but not for me._

 _I'm not happy on Christmas Day._

 _I'm never cheerful. I'm never gay._

 _If you think I could feel that way,_

 _Then you are just as stupid as can be._

Merlyn then backed Oliver back to the door.

 _If you think I'd be merry,_

 _And chirp like a canary,_

 _Then you are even dumber than a dumb bug!_

 _When you say 'Merry Christmas',_

 _I say fiddlesticks! Poppycock!_

 _And just plain humbug! Humbug!_

 _Humbug, humbug, HUMBUG!_

"I pity you, Uncle." Oliver said calmly. "Maybe I'll never be as rich as you, but I'll go to my grave still believing in a merry Christmas."

"Good afternoon." Merlyn said as he opened the door for Oliver.

"A wonderful Christmas!" Oliver went on.

"Good afternoon!" Merlyn said a bit more forcefully.

"A magnificent Christmas!" Oliver finished.

"GOOD AFTERNOON!" Merlyn shouted as he kicked Oliver out of the house.

()()()()()

Oliver picked himself up, brushed himself down and began walking, joining the carolers in song.

 _An old fashioned Christmas._

 _With snow falling hard._

 _On scenery looking like_

 _A pretty Christmas card._

 _An old fashioned angel,_

 _On top of a tree._

 _With candlelight dancing down_

 _On friends surrounding me._

* * *

Man, that kid is a rock!


	3. The Chains

Chapter 2: The Chains

As the clock chimed five, the end of the work day, Clark finished up and nervously went to Merlyn.

"You'll want all day off tomorrow, I suppose." Merlyn groaned.

"If it's convenient sir." Clark said. "After all, it is Christmas Eve."

"It's not convenient." Merlyn muttered. "And it's not fair. I have you pay you a day's wages for nothing. All this holiday garbage will have me in the poor house."

"Don't fall for it, Clark." Chloe muttered. Merlyn was a sly old business man.

"Well sir." Clark said. "If things are so bad for you, you don't have to pay me for the whole day."

"First sensible thing you've said all day, Kent." Merlyn said. "I'll pay you half a day, and no more."

"Alright." Clark said.

He and Merlyn walked out as Chloe reluctantly followed Merlyn. Chloe was furious at him.

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _So stingy? So stingy?_

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _He's the stingiest man in town!_

Merlyn sighed as he checked his cash box for the day, full as expected.

"Uh, you're lucky you're dead as a doornail, Hugo." Merlyn sighed. "And not bothered with Christmas. I'm lucky too. I don't have to share the profits with you, anymore."

 _Old Merlyn's such a stingy man._

 _The tightest man since time began._

 _Oh he's so tight, so tight I say,_

 _He wouldn't give a bride away._

 _It hurts him so to pay one cent._

 _He wouldn't pay a compliment._

 _He uses lightning bugs at night_

 _To save the cash he pays for light._

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _So stingy? So stingy?_

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _He's the stingiest man in town!_

 _And when his Hurst goes rolling by,_

 _No man alive is gonna cry._

 _But you can bet his ghost will curse,_

 _Because he's paying for the Hurst._

 _And when it's time for him to go,_

 _His soul will travel down below._

 _And when he gets there, you can tell_

 _Because you'll hear old Satan yell,_

" _How can anybody be so stingy?!_

 _So stingy?! So stingy?!_

 _He's the stingiest man in town!"_

Merlyn went to an old house that used to belong to Strange, having been left to Merlyn in his will. There was something strange about that night. The mist was so dark that it seemed like death sat in meditation. Merlyn went to the doorknob when suddenly it became the face of Hugo Strange! There was no mistake. He had the same beard, bald head, and glasses.

"Hugo?" Merlyn gasped. "Hugo Strange? But you've been dead for seven years! Oh, why have you come back to haunt me?!"

The doorknob returned to normal, and Merlyn sighed.

"Just my imagination." Merlyn sighed. "Bah humbug. I better get to bed."

Merlyn walked in as Chloe followed. Her father had been Hugo Strange's aid, and Merlyn inherited their use with the house.

"Didn't seem like a humbug to me." Chloe said as she passed the door nervously.

After the commotion, Lex went straight to bed, however…

That night when old Malcolm Merlyn

Lay dreaming in his room,

He heard the sound of rattling chains

Come clanking through the gloom.

And while he lay there shivering

In the icy grip of fear,

The ghost of Merlyn's partner,

Old Hugo Strange did appear…

Strange looked the same, but he was covered in chains and cash boxes.

"Malcolm Merlyn…" Strange said moaning as if in pain or misery. "In life I was your partner, Hugo Strange."

"Bah!" Merlyn said. "You're just an hallucination!"

"See me." Strange said as calm as the sea. "Why do you doubt your senses?"

Strange removed his glasses as his eyes left his skull with them, and Strange roared at him. Shocking Lex as Strange refixed his glasses back on as easy and normally as talking on the phone.

"What do you want with me?" Merlyn asked nervously.

"Much." Strange explained. "Look at me. Condemned to walk the Earth in death because I wasted my life."

"Wasted?" Merlyn asked. "How Hugo?"

"I helped myself to money." Strange said with a weep. "Instead of helping my neighbor, and so I wear this chain of greed and heartlessness I forged in life."

 _I wear a chain. A heavy chain_

 _Is bound around my soul._

 _A chain of sin and vices_

 _That I could not control._

 _Repent your crimes. Repent in time._

 _Or you'll repent in vain._

 _For if you wait until too late,_

 _You'll never break your chains._

 _Although my chain is very long,_

 _The one you wear is longer._

 _My chain of wrong is very strong,_

 _But yours is even stronger._

 _You must escape! Escape my fate!_

 _Cast of the sins that bind you,_

 _Or you will find when you pass on,_

 _You'll drag your chain behind you!_

"But it's not right for you to be so condemned!" Merlyn said, applying this to himself as well. "You were only doing business in life as I do now. And business is business."

"Mankind should have been my business." Strange said. "You still have time to repent. Reform!"

"How?" Merlyn asked.

"Tonight, you will be haunted by three spirits." Strange said.

"I'd rather not." Merlyn said quaking for the first time in many, many years.

"Without their visits you cannot hope to shun the path I tread." Strange retorted. "Expect the first tonight when the bell tolls one."

Strange then walked to the window and opened it as Merlyn saw several people with chains like Strange's, some were shorter, some were longer, but all looked extremely heavy to carry.

"See the phantoms that fill the night air." Strange elaborated. "Each with chains. None free, and I must go with them."

Strange floated down to the others and turned to Merlyn.

"Observe and know our misery, Malcolm." Strange went on. "Now we seek to do good in human matters but have lost the power forever. Repent! Repent…!"

"No!" Merlyn said more out of fear of the sight than refusing to repent. "NO!"

Merlyn shut the window as Chloe rushed to see the sight, having seen Strange with Merlyn.

"They're gone…" Chloe said with a shiver.

* * *

Oh my… That must suck for Strange.


	4. Little Moira

Chapter 3: Little Moira

After the shock of seeing Strange's ghost, Merlyn went to sleep, and Merlyn was suddenly awoken when the bell of the grandfather clock down in his study stroke one.

As Merlyn got up, he was aware of a bright light and pulled back the curtains to reveal a figure, she was a blonde woman with blue eyes and dressed in a white sleeveless dress.

"Who are you?" Merlyn asked.

"I am the ghost of Christmas Past." The woman said.

"Long past?" Merlyn asked.

"No." The woman said. "Your past. You can call me Lara for simplicity's sake. Now take my hand."

Merlyn hesitantly took it, and all of a sudden, they were flying over the city before arriving at a smaller suburb.

"I don't know where we're going." Merlyn thought aloud. "But everything looks strangely familiar."

"Look upon yourself when you were younger." Lara said as she led Lex to a school house where an eleven-year-old boy with the same black hair and blue eyes as him was alone at a schoolhouse reading a book.

"Do you know this child?" Lara asked.

"Know him?" Merlyn said. "That's me."

"Mind if I ask why you are all alone in there?" Lara asked.

"After my parents died, I just took to staying over at the old boarding school full time." Merlyn explained. "Give myself a chance to… To catch up on my reading."

There was a knock at the door as young Malcolm finished reading, and he opened it to reveal a blonde girl with blue eyes.

"Oh Malcolm, Malcolm!" Moira squealed. "I just talked to Mr. Wilson, and he said you can come back and stay with him! We can be together all Christmas long!"

"Really?" Malcolm asked.

"Yes!" Moira insisted. "We're going to have the merriest Christmas ever, and be together always!"

"Right." Malcolm said with a smile as he walked off with his sister.

"Always a delicate girl who a breath might have withered." Lara stated. "But she had a big heart."

"Yeah." Merlyn said as he began choking up. "She did."

"She died a woman and had children, right?" Lara asked.

"One child." Merlyn sighed.

"True." Lara went on. "Your nephew Oliver."

"And when Moira died, I swore I'd never love anything again."

"But you did love again." Lara said. "Come…"

Lara took Merlyn's hand, and in an instant, they were off again.

* * *

I had to add this. I couldn't resist.


	5. It Might Have Been

Chapter 5: It Might Have Been

Almost an instant after watching his younger self leave with Moira, Merlyn found himself outside a building he hadn't seen in years.

"Why, this is where my first job was." Merlyn gaped. "Yes, old Lang's offices. It sounds like one of his Christmas parties are going on!"

Merlyn looked in excitedly, acting surprisingly more like he used to rather than how he acted in the present. Lex looked in and saw himself not all that different from his present self, if a bit more joyful, dancing with a slender woman with dirty blonde hair and green eyes.

"That's me, and my fiancé, Dinah!" Merlyn called out. "I remember it like it was yesterday. After the dance, we went out into the snow to cool ourselves. Oh, what were we whispering on that long ago day?"

"But you can't be serious, Dinah." The younger Merlyn said plainly.

"There's no reason we can't get married now." Dinah said plainly. "Don't you love me, Malcolm?"

"More than the world." Malcolm assured Dinah. "But I would rather wait until I was more secure, financially."

"No, you young fool!" Merlyn snapped at his former self.

"Don't say that, dear." Dinah said to the past Merlyn. "You frighten me."

"I only want what's best for you." Malcolm went on.

"That's what I want too." Dinah added. "A tiny cottage."

"A cottage?" Malcolm asked.

" _I want a gilded cottage._ " Dinah explained.

" _We can't afford it yet._ " Malcolm explained. " _But when I've made my fortune, what mansions we will get._ "

" _I only want a little cottage with children playing on the floor._ " Dinah explained calmly.

" _But darling love flies out the window when poverty comes through the door._ " Malcolm insisted.

 _I think of you, and my future gleams._

 _And my mind is filled with golden dreams._

 _I think of you, and I love you so._

 _All the world takes on a golden glow._

 _So hold me close, tonight._

 _And fill me with dreams of delight._

 _I think of you and your love for me._

 _And I know that life with you will be_

 _More beautiful than it seems_

 _In my golden … Dreams . . ._

As the two embraced and kissed each other, Merlyn could feel tears on his face.

"I…" Merlyn said, trying to hold back the tears. "I shouldn't have remembered."

"There is another Christmas." Lara said, and in that instant, they were just outside Merlyn and Strange's old business. "You'd just formed your partnership with Strange. Your business was new, but your ways were set."

"Oh please." Merlyn gasped. "Spare me the rest."

"You must drain the cup to the dregs." Lara insisted. "Recall how you drove love from your heart and replaced it with the worship of money."

"No!" Merlyn gasped.

"Yes!" Dinah snapped at the younger Merlyn, both having obviously been through much darker times since the party. "Another idol has replaced me!"

"Oh really?" Malcolm asked dismissively. "That's going a bit far, don't you think?"

Malcolm then sat down and went over his books as this was a while before Clark became his clerk.

"Hm." Merlyn groaned. "Jordan is six months in default. Do you realize how much money I stand to lose?"

"But Malcolm, it is Christmas." Dinah insisted, closing the book.

"Christmas?!" Malcolm said as he shot up in anger, not for the first or last time. "Christmas is a folly, a sham, a waste of time! It's a… A humbug! Yes, yes. Christmas is a humbug."

Dinah gasped and turned away.

"I… I wish to break off our engagement, Malcolm." Dinah said.

"You can't be serious." Malcolm said in honest shock. "Why?"

"You've become someone I don't know." Dinah said. "Someone I don't wish to know."

 _You've lost the beautiful tomorrow._

 _You really had a chance to win._

 _Our love has turned into a shadow_

 _Of happiness that might have been._

"Oh phooey." Malcolm said as he turned his back to her, mistakenly thinking she was just hysterical.

 _It might have been_

 _A warm and wonderful romance._

 _It might have been_

 _If you had given it a chance._

 _You had the ticket to enchanted lands._

 _Why did you let it slip right through your hands?_

Unable to bare it, Dinah rushed out of the building, Malcolm moved to follow, but he couldn't bring himself to do it and simply went back to his books.

 _I might have known_

 _A life of happiness with you,_

 _But love has flown._

 _The wrong I've done, I can't undo._

 _And now too late, my bitter tears begin._

 _Because I know… It might… Have… Been. . ._

As Merlyn watched his former self let Dinah leave he turned to Lara.

"I can't bare it!" Merlyn called out. "HAUNT ME NO LONGER!"

Merlyn went to Lara, but all he gripped was his clock.

"Oh…" Merlyn sighed. "Thank heavens."

Merlyn went back to sleep as Chloe, having been in an adjoining room, came in just to see what was going on, when a loud laugh was heard, and Merlyn bolt up, and both looked down to a yellow light from the living room.

* * *

Uh-oh. Looks like the number two ghost is right on time.


	6. Yes, There is a Santa Claus

Chapter 5: Yes, There is a Santa Claus

Merlyn and Chloe slowly walked into the room as it was suddenly filled with grand decorations and a huge Christmas tree.

"My parlor!" Merlyn gaped. "What happened to my parlor?"

Merlyn looked around and saw a man wearing a scarlet jacket as he stood at the table.

"I'm the Ghost of Christmas Present." The man said. "You can call me, Barry. Now come and know me better for you have never known the likes of me before."

"What exactly are you?" Merlyn asked, unsure of just how this man in a jacket represented Christmas.

"The Christmas Spirit." Barry said as he put his hand over some toys as Merlyn, in them, saw many childhood memories and hopes, though that might only have been a residual effect from his previous visitor.

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit._

 _Can't you hear it? Can't you hear it?_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit_

 _Ringing in the air._

 _Twinkling lamps and girls and boys._

 _Mingle with the jingling of joys._

 _Words of hope and happy times,_

 _Sound to the music of chimes!_

 _Jumping jacks, and dancing dolls,_

 _Tumble to the jumble of bouncing balls._

 _See the Christmas Toy Ballet_

 _Dance to the bells of the sleigh!_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit._

 _Can't you hear it? Can't you hear it?_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit_

 _Ringing in the air._

 _Click your heels. Point your toes._

 _Spin around and around and around,_

 _And away we go._

 _Clap your hands. Wink your eyes._

 _Jump so high, you can reach the sky!_

As the odd music seemed to be playing out of nowhere, Barry held his hand as the two were flung out the window as Barry met up with them.

"We're going to fall!" Merlyn called out.

"Touch the hem of my coat and be lifted." Barry said calmly as Merlyn did so, taking Chloe's hand as well.

"Great way to travel." Chloe said with a gasp. "But where are we going?"

"Clark Kent's house." Barry replied.

As they arrived they looked in through the window, as before, invisible to all who saw them as Clark's wife Lois was working with Clark's cousin Kara for dinner as Clark's brother Conner arrived.

"Hey Lois." Conner said. "I could smell that turkey all the way from church."

"But where's Clark?" Lois asked. "And Little Jason?"

At once, Clark walked in with a smile. On his shoulder was a boy who looked almost exactly like Clark but with brown hair. He also had a crutch and his leg in a brace.

"Who wants to know?" Clark asked with a chuckle.

"Oh, you silly boys." Lois said as Kara helped Jason down.

"So, how'd Jason behave in church?" Lois asked.

"As good as gold and better." Clark replied. "He told me walking home that he hoped the people saw him in church since it might be pleasant to remember on Christmas Day who made lame men walk and blind men see."

"Well, come on kids, time for dinner." Lois said as they got the food set up, with an extremely small goose.

"Oh boy, what a great dinner!" Jason said excitedly.

"Indeed." Clark said. "I propose a toast to Mr. Luthor."

Everyone groaned at this.

"Come on now." Jason said. "We mustn't think poorly of him."

"Why not?!" Kara snapped. "It's his thinking that makes us so poor!"

"Now, now." Clark responded. "Mr. Luthor is the founder of the feast."

"'Feast' indeed." Lois scoffed. "With a goose no bigger than a canary for our boy."

"Oh, must I listen?" Merlyn asked. He'd never really seen things from Clark's view of the world, and now he had, he saw how pitiful it seemed.

"Well surely you know how Clark lived." Barry replied.

"Instead of docking Clark half a day, why didn't I give him extra for Christmas?!" Merlyn said angrily to himself.

"Kara," Jason said after dinner. "Did I show you the toy soldier Santa got me, last year?"

"A hundred times, Jason." Kara said with a laugh.

"I'll show you again." Jason said cheerfully as he suddenly fell to the floor.

"He's falling!" Merlyn said. "I've got to help him!"

"You can't." Barry pointed out.

"Isn't there anything I can do?" Merlyn asked.

"It's perhaps too late." Barry responded.

Kara helped Jason up and cradled him like a brother.

"Oh Jason, little buddy, are you alright?!" Kara asked frantically as everyone else gathered around with the same look of worry on their face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jason said as he held up the soldier.

"See?" Jason said.

"Oh, what a brave soldier he is." Kara said, talking more about Jason than the toy soldier which basically looked like a painted clothes pin.

"The kids at school say there isn't a Santa, and that this is just a clothes pin Dad painted because he couldn't afford to buy a real one." Jason said.

"What nonsense!" Kara insisted.

"There is a Santa Claus, isn't there, Kara?" Jason asked.

"Yes, Jason." Kara said with assuredness.

 _There is a spirit in the world of generosity_

 _That brings good things to all of us wherever we may be._

 _So I believe in Santa Claus, for it can't be denied_

 _That he is generosity personified._

 _Yes there is a Santa Claus for children everywhere._

 _Though you may watch the chimney tops and never see him there._

 _People say his magic sleigh flies in the sky above,_

 _But you might find it anywhere you find unselfish love!_

 _Oh yes, he really does exist, and Santa Claus will live._

 _As long as hearts can realize how good it feels to give!_

 _So when you are feeling blue, keep up your hope because_

 _If there is kindness in this world, there is a Santa Claus!_

Jason nodded and joined into his cousin's song.

" _Yes there is a Santa Claus…_ "

Jason and Kara hugged as everyone smiled and went on enjoying themselves as Merlyn could only watch that brave little soldier with his leg in a brace.

* * *

Okay, this section and the next three were why I wanted to do this.


	7. Birthday Party of the King

Chapter 6: Birthday Party of the King

An instant after Kara assured Jason there was a Santa Claus, Merlyn and Chloe were flying above London again, courtesy of Barry.

"Haven't you shown me enough already?" Merlyn asked more out of the guilt over what Moira would think of her big brother if she were alive today rather than the frustration he had shown to those children carolers the day before last.

"There is another place to visit." Barry explained. "Even though you refused the offer yesterday."

"Oh no!" Merlyn said as that guilt swelled even more. "Not my nephew Oliver's dinner party!"

But it was too late. The quartet was right in the middle of a modest but well-kept home. Oliver was there with his wife, a woman with brown hair and understated green eyes, reminding Merlyn of Dinah.

"To Uncle Merlyn!" Oliver called out just as Clark had done at his own home to the same lukewarm reception.

"That stingy man who shuns you every time you see him?" Laurel asked.

"Have pity on him, Laurel." Oliver asked.

"Pity?" Laurel asked. "For a man so rich? His entire business is solely to be making a profit."

"Profit, yes." Oliver said. "But how do the profits profit him? He takes it into his head to dislike us and be gloomy in Strange's old place. I plan on giving him the same invitation I give him every year until he finally accepts for I pity him."

"How can you have so much patience, Oliver?" Laurel asked, obviously ashamed of herself.

"Because my mother always spoke highly of him and no one my mother loved so much can be all bad." Oliver said simply as everyone went back to the party, somehow even merrier than before.

Merlyn however, was weeping silently, especially as his sister's favorite song was playing in the background.

"Why this remorse?" Barry asked.

"Every year he gives me a gift." Merlyn said with a heavy sigh and a trembling voice. "And I toss it away. I never understood such things."

"But gifts have been a part of Christmas from the very beginning." Barry pointed out. "See that tiny stable under the tree? Perhaps your young companion can tell you."

Chloe, more out of instinct than anything else, began singing a song her father had taught her as Merlyn looked at an ornament depicting the nativity.

 _Christmas Trees are brightly lighted._

 _Through the world the church bells ring._

 _Great and small are all invited_

 _To the birthday party of the King._

 _Mighty prince and humble peasant._

 _Each will choose a gift to bring._

 _Do you have a birthday present_

 _For the birthday party of the King?_

 _Once wise men came in his honor_

 _Bringing incense, myrrh, and gold._

 _But what is gold to a ruler_

 _Who has all the stars to hold?!_

 _Do you know what gift will please him?_

 _Please him more than anything?!_

 _Bring a heart that really loves him_

 _To the birthday party… Of the King . . .!_

Merlyn smiled at the song as he felt his heart swell up at the familiar, but somehow new, story, but then his smile fell as he thought of the Kent house.

"But what about that other child?" Merlyn asked Barry. "So tiny he seems little more than a baby himself. What of Little Jason?"

"I see a vacant seat in the chimney corner." Barry said solemnly. "And a little clutch without an owner carefully preserved."

As Barry said this, Merlyn found himself in the Kent house to find the scene Barry described and a family in mourning as they left for the cemetery.

"Oh dear god, let it not be." Merlyn gasped as he collapses down at the crutch and wept for the boy his callousness would kill.

Next chapter, my favorite song in the whole film.


	8. One Little Boy

Chapter Seven: One Little Boy

"Little Jason gone?" Merlyn asked as he continued to weep. "This cannot be!"

"Why not?" Barry asked as he walked up behind Merlyn. "Who cares?"

One little boy is just a dot

In all the human race.

"What?" Merlyn asked, aghast as he thought of both Jason and his nephew Oliver when he was little.

One little boy is just a spot

Upon a planet's face!

"No!" Merlyn shouted out, speaking unconsciously like his former rather than latter self.

And when he is no longer there,

A billion take the place

Of one… Little boy…

At this, Merlyn had to say something, and as he spoke, he unconsciously thought of the children he had known such as Moira and her own son, Oliver.

But one little boy can sing a song

And have a world of fun.

One little boy can grow up strong

And leap and jump and run!

And you would want to see him grow

If he would be your son.

That one little boy.

Barry shook his head and continued.

If he passes on…

Utterly, he is gone…

There's one less in the nation…

Let him rest in peace…

And he will decrease…

The surplus population…

"No!" Merlyn called out in horror at his own callousness. "No!"

"That's what you thought not long ago!" Barry pointed out darkly as all Merlyn could do was bow his head in shame.

"That's what I thought, but now I know." Merlyn conceded as he picked up the painted clothespin Clark had made Jason for Christmas.

One little boy who cannot walk

Is not a broken toy.

One little boy can laugh and talk

And fill a home with joy.

And no one else can take the place

Of that one little boy.

For a moment, Merlyn could swear he saw Jason sitting in his seat as he walked up, only to find it empty as he dropped the toy soldier.

That one… Little boy.

At this, Merlyn one again collapsed at the chair and crutch and wept as Barry simply disappeared as he could barely perceive the room changing back into his parlor as Chloe came up and put a hand on Merlyn's shoulder for comfort, and he gratefully accepted it.

"What next?" Chloe groaned as they heard the stroke of midnight and all looked out to see a solitary figure in a yellow outfit.

Well, we're coming close to the end now. Also, this song was my favorite in the whole movie.


End file.
